Elfe
Born Felicia Verdot, February 4, 1964. Commander of Avalanche Vigilante Ally Early Life Felicia was born in Kalm to Veld and Linda Verdot. At the time, Kalm was sort of like a suburb of Midgar and many people lived there and commuted to Midgar rather like the "Beltway Bandits" of Washington D.C. When Elfe was about three, there was an Accident and Kalm was burned to the ground. To this day, no one is entirely sure what happened. Veld lost his left arm along with his wife and child. Both were taken to the overcrowded Old Midgar General which had to be rapidly expanded in order to accommodate all the casualties. This was the beginning of Deepground. Yes, they did experimental treatments, but they did so to save lives. The people here were in bad enough shape that something crazy and unorthodox was the only option they had left. There was as yet no Shinra building as we know it. There was no Deepground either, only the Midgar General Hospital. This was originally a hospital for the first power plant workers and other staff who maintained Reactor Zero. Every available medical doctor was called in to help deal with the casualties. This included Hojo, Gast, Ifalna, and several others from the Science Department that had any medical knowledge. Burns are a bad business even today, and there were a lot of jury-rigged mako pods built. Among other things, Hojo repeated the materia trick he and Lucrecia had used on Vincent. Because more children survived than adults, he couldn’t use a whole materia. He treated Elfe with 1/4 of the Zirconiade materia. He saved the other pieces for later use (one would go to power Shalua’s prosthetic arm , another to Lazard, and he kept the fourth for himself). Both Felicia and her mother were badly burned. Felicia’s mom got it worse. Felicia was about three and could talk well for her age, but her pronunciation wasn’t great. She couldn’t pronounce her own name, and called herself “Elfe”. Her mom would recover and then relapse every time they thought she was making progress. Ergo, she spent a lot of time in a mako tank. Because of this, no one really knew who they were. Had Hojo known, he would have told Veld right away. Shinra Linda eventually died of her wounds when Elfe was four. She was then placed with the other surviving orphans in a nearby home. She had friends, and her keepers were reasonably nice. She continued to receive treatments and checkups at Midgar General, monitored by Hojo. She actually has fond memories of him. He hadn’t completely gone off the deep end at that point, and she thinks of him as weird, yet lovable in an “Old Koot” kinda way. (This makes Sephiroth’s brain hurt.) Elfe, along with the rest of the surviving kids, were taken into service by Shinra, most of them as security guards. Indeed, because of the strength Zircon gave her, Elfe became highly proficient at combat despite her small stature. Although the materia saved her life, it does not lend her any other powers besides unnatural strength. She can’t transform, and her affinity for magic is no greater than it ever was. She is a success in that she lived, but outside of that, there’s not much special about her. Avalanche Since she was one of the more responsible guards, Hojo assigned her to accompany some of his interns to Cosmo Canyon. Fuhito is a nerd after his own heart and has the attention span to match. So Elfe goes with him and a few others to make sure they don’t get lost or set themselves- or something else- on fire. While at Cosmo, she learns about Love & Peace and saving the planet. Fuhito tells her about his research, which builds upon that of Dr. Valentine and Dr. Crescent. Elfe knows she has a Zircon shard and Fuhito geeks the hell out over this. He’s crushing on Zircon more than he is on her (he’s about 4yrs older than she is), and wants to help her with that. Elfe thinks “help” means “get this dang stone out of my hand”, because at this point, it’s begun to turn her hand to crystal. She can still move it, it just hurts and looks weird. It also causes her to start fainting at inopportune times. Fuhito thinks “help” means “awaken Zirconiade so that I will have a god-made-human for a girlfriend who will then smite those who would harm the Planet and anyone else who’s been mean to me”. This is what is known as failure to communicate. :P Fuhito tries his best to “treat” Elfe by giving her mako supplements. This alleviates the pain and fainting, but actually speeds the crystallization process. Both of them decide “screw Shinra” and join up with Avalanche. Elfe rises through the ranks to become the leader of Avalanche. She knows how Shinra operates, and she’s also the most skilled tactician and fighter. Fuhito and Shears act as her right and left hand, respectively. Fuhito has a crush on Zircon, Shears has a crush on Elfe, and Elfe does not have time for this, you idiots. Avalanche launches an attack on Junon. They don’t manage to blow up the reactor, but they do cause enough trouble and make enough of a mess to prove that they mean business. This is the first time they get real media attention and are formally recognized as a Problem. Elfe plans to either kidnap or otherwise “persuade” Rufus to cooperate. Instead, she meets up with Seph & Co. She is reunited with Veld, whom she had thought was dead.